Heart-Warming ‘Sonjae’s Gift Giving’

Sends School Supplies to Low-income Families

On January 31, 2013, the Most Venerable Jaseung (president of the Jogye Order) led the charity campaign on the first floor of the Center for Korean Buddhist History and Culture. “Seonje’s Gift Giving,” a charity campaign organized by the Friends on the Path Foundation, packaged and sent out school supplies to underprivileged children throughout the nation.

This year’s Seonje’s gift package included school bags, books and other school supplies. These school kits were packaged from 10 AM for two hours and at 11 AM, Ven. Jaseung personally handed out school packages to three children, including Choi Gayeon (8 yrs), a female student from multicultural family in the Jongno-gu borough.

Seonje’s Gift packages were handed out to children of low-income families, particularly to children being raised in a multicultural family, by a single parent, or a grandparent. A fundraising campaign (on and offline) was held for a month near the end of 2012, raising approximately 15,000,000 KW (~$13,500 US) in total. This fundraising campaign was designed where each individual donation of 50,000 KW (~ $50 US) allowed a single student to be presented with a school package.

Preparation for this year’s campaign was made possible through the collection of funds from charity bazaars and Friends on the Path Foundation campaign held last September. A total of 500 students received approximately $110 US worth of school supplies each, with the total campaign supplies worth of 60,000,000 KW (~$55,000 US).